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Show Solons need two sessions to finish business "No one's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session." This is one of the those "laws" people like to refer to every time when they start to take things too seriously and need a laugh. But the length of Utah's "budget" session is no longer a laughing matter. With a growing state and growing problems, legislators have been hard pressed to keep up with the growing demands of state government when they meet in the abbreviated ab-breviated 20-day session ever other year. Non-budget items are becoming more and more common, com-mon, and mistakes are cropping up with embarrassing regularity. Local solons met again Monday in a special session to correct technical problems in a $750 million school finance act passed in January at one of those shorter sessions. If the problem wasn't corrected, schools would have no money to operate next year. True, a recent -Utah Supreme Court ruling concerning the property tax has confused the issues considerably, and probably would have required a special session anyway, " but it is becomming increasing apparent that the business of Utah cannot be effectively handled under the current system. A second regular session is needed to replace the current budget session, a session in which state legislators can deliberate on the pressing issues facing Utah, debate those issues adequately and make an intelligent decision. We don't always agree with the way the legislators spend the time they are in session. But it is inescapable that they need more time with which to do it. Legislators are currently considering a 45-day and a 47-day 47-day second session. Either of the proposals would be an improvement over the current situation. While no one's life, liberty or property may be safe when the legislators meet, problems in all those areas will continue to worsen if they aren't allowed to meet long enough to solve the pressing problems of Utah. |